Timing of Meals for Horse Health and Performance

alfalfa pellets and cubes can be a good alternative to provide an effective stomach buffer for your horse prior to working.
Although one would think that a diet of freechoice hay offered every day would suit all horses and give them good gastrointestinal tract health that isnt the case with all horses. Some horses in particular those that are insulin resistant IR or diagnosed with equine metabolic syndrome EMS must have some kind of control on their feed intake. These are the kind of horses that are ALWAYS hungry and will never say no to feed. Too much feed isnt good for the health of any horse or for their performance.
Feeding for Hindgut Health
Feeding a consistent diet of small frequent meals of good quality forage is an excellent start to a regime to maximize gastrointestinal health. Not only does it ensure the stomach generally has a small amount of forage in it to help buffer the gastric juices secreted it also means that the hindgut or cecum and large colon also have a consistent supply of high quality complex carbohydrates. This helps ensure a balanced hindgut pH and consequently a healthy population of hindgut microbes. Good bugs ensure that adequate safe energy is being provided to the horse from the fermentation of complex carbohydrates to volatile fatty acids VFA a safe energy source for all horses. Good bugs also reduce the risk of hindgut upset including chronic diarrhea gas colic and potential laminitic changes in the horses feet
Water Forage and the Performance Horse  
Another lesser known aspect of a hindgut full of good hay is the watercarrying capacity it offers. The partiallydigested hay in the hindgut acts like a giant sponge that can hold water which is potentially available metabolically to your horse at any given time. Research has shown that different kinds and maturities of hays have varying abilities to actually carry and provide water for metabolic use for the horse. Grass hays have a great capacity to hold water in the hindgut of the horse and as the fibre is utilized in the fermentation process by the microbes the water is released and available for use metabolically by the horse. Beet pulp alfalfa hay and forage cubes as well as some commercial highfibre concentrates also have great watercarrying capacities as well as excellent capacity for releasing water into the lumen of the digestive tract for use by the horse